Probing the Histories That Lie Beneath...

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:          Probing the Histories That Lie Beneath... 

I was thinking just the other day...   and, yes, I do think occasionally despite my standing as a geezer of an "historic" age (according to a brilliant contributor!)...     I should perhaps explain.   Many of us have reached an age that should, in the young, I think, prompt wonder, respect and a desire to ask questions, seek answers, probe for history, lest the opportunity is lost forever in the blurred mists of passing time!

I regret I did not ask my grandparents and parents more about their pasts, their own

We / They are not as old as
those fine features on 
the Acropolis in Athens!
Truly, We / they aren't!!  It's
merely symbolic...

histories....   Other relatives and friends too, parents' friends...  I'm guessing many of my contemporaries harbor the same regret.  Shucks, Alas and Drat!  Too late now for too many of us...

SweetHeart and I, some years ago, became "Chief Volunteers" (or Volunteer Coordinators) at a school for seniors, along with installations upon -- having been unanimously asked and appointed to -- its Board of Directors, a dual honor or sorts.  (Again, one of those profound distinctions after it having been determined that we were indeed still breathing!)  

As we've grown into our roles and the comfort levels that come with longevity, we've been privileged to meet a number of extraordinary and talented fellow members and volunteers of "historic" standing!  

Here's the revelation that materializes in the mind as realization dawns like a rising sun on a summer's day:   People in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and centenarian status as well, have histories, remarkable ones!  They were not born in the senior portions of their lives.  They have history, some if not most of it fascinating stuff!

One need merely probe a bit, ask questions, ask them about themselves....   Mind telling us your life story!  Start at the very beginning...!

Where they've been, what PATHS they've taken, where they come from, ancestral homes and homelands, what schools they attended and what professions or career paths they pursued prior to appearing somewhat different -- you know, grey or white-haired, faces and necks lined, hands and arms spotted and creased, road maps of achievement. 

 Like great, glorious and enduring symbols of antiquity.  Astounding!  It's true...    People have history, and they travel along interesting pathways throughout their lives...  Explore those pathways and discover...

In conversation with one of our school for seniors colleagues, those of us listening were delighted and fascinated to learn that he was a lawyer, in fact a patent attorney.  He spent time in the U.S. Army, in Berlin, Germany and other stations during his military service.  He's in his 90s.  And  he was a championship swimmer, having placed 7th in the entire U.S. collegiate swim team population!  He has a helluva history!

On the same board and among our friends, both new and of long standing, we have a past school principal and administrator, a former star reporter and editor, a professor emeritus of anthropology, a former and highly successful business founder and owner...

One of those historic personalities continues to play competitive tennis, another competitive softball.  A few of us played highly competitive volleyball for more than 40 years, well into the venerable 70s.  I mean, all of that background, that history, is quite amazing.  You'd be wrong, and maybe a bit addle-brained if you don't agree!!  Take the time to think and to inquire...  And, you'd make the objects of your inquiries very happy!  That alone is a gift, a significant and generous gift.     

One wonders how many young people would look at those individuals who have achieved "senior status" and register only their obvious ages, never bothering to look deeper or inquire about their lives, accomplishments and experiences.   Seek sit-down meetings and long conversations!  You know, "Tell me about your life...  Leave nothing out...  well, that is, almost nothing!"

And if there isn't enough self gratification in initiating a fine conversation with wonderful older adults, wouldn't it be a great way to "break ice."  An even greater means of making a friend, ingratiating oneself to a person with whom you might just build a friendship, a confidant, someone with whom you might start a valuable network!  

 THANK YOU!   Tune in again for fascinating reading, superb ideas and scintillating conversation, meaning of course sort of written conversation... 

However, I am available should readers wish to have an actual, verbal conversation.  Wouldn't that be swell!!??  

Humbly Submitted 05-09-2026, by Joel K.

  

     

  

Volunteering / Participating at The School...!!...

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:          Volunteering / Participating at The School...!!.....

    Now when was it?  Maybe two, three years ago?!  Maybe?...  Just to be clear, GeezerHood had already made its presence known in my being...  Had already appeared, to put it another way!  Our friend, Cathy, telephoned with a "remarkable" offer!  (I use the adjective sort of "Tongue in Cheek" style!...)   

(But wait, there's more, and it's all really positive and uplifting too!!)

Apparently people caught a lot of White
Fish here throughout the community's
history*...  Maybe still do!  And cafes 
serve whitefish dishes too, we told!
(* Meaning, of course, in the Big
Lake that forms its Eastern Border!)

    "Hi," said she, "You two would be a perfect fit for North Shore School for Seniors!  Ever hear of it?  The school is headquartered at a church nearby, United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, at the head, sort of, of downtown Whitefish bay...  where Lake Drive apparently ends, but then turns right at a traffic light...  go straight at the light and you're in the heart of downtown..."  

(Our friend is the Executive Director of NSS4S!)

"Not interested," said I.

"Yes we are," said SweetHeart.

We began as Volunteers, quickly becoming "Chief (and, dare one say) Executive" Volunteer Coordinators.  

"You've been unanimously selected as our principal Volunteer Coordinators," said Cathy, enthusiasm, like gold leaf, embellishing her words of pure delight (not to mention clever conscription strategy!).  "And, oh yes, the existing board voted for you as well!  You are also our newest Members of the Board of Directors"!  

"Gosh," we gushed in unison, "Board Members too!!  Great leaping anacondas!  Imagine..."  She failed to mention that only if we hadn't been actually breathing beings we might have been turned down for the latter superb honor that was (un-?) ceremoniously heaped upon us!!

Perhaps I'm being a bit sarcastic, or should the correct word be...   sardonic?  Truth is, we blended into the role with delight, perhaps not as far down the road to the destination...   BLISS!  Not right away, anyway!

In time, however, now some time and experience having passed, we, SweetHeart and I, have indeed embraced the roles we were offered, or should I say, thrust, co-op'ted, um...   "forced" into out of friendship, sense of duty, nothing we could do about it...  too timid to say NO...  (See Paragraph Three!)...  

In truth, we have come to enjoy the school, our 

NSS4S welcomes students / 
participants of any and all age
groups!  Register Today...
at:   www.nss4s.org!

roles, the wonderful people we've met -- including students, of course -- and the overall adventures of Learning, Having Fun, Making New Friends!!!  Our fellow volunteers are quite wonderful, and committed (or should be??...  A bit of humor thrown in to lighten the mood, of course!!  We mustn't get too serious around here!!) 

The school (and its class sessions, needless to add...!) occurs every Monday and every Tuesday for four consecutive weeks (Term One), then continues for four more weeks (Term Two).  There's a Fall session, and then a Spring session, the latter also consisting of Two Terms!  Classes are held -- some 60 of them -- on Mondays and Tuesdays, September through dates in October, and then comes "Term Two" that begins and ends on dates in November!  The Spring Sessions?...  (To Be Announced!  Stay Tuned, Stay Current, you Lucky Students!!  And we do mean Lucky, as the classes offered are truly diverse and...

NSS4S Instructors are
not so intimidating...
They are kind, intelligent and 
committed to offering our 
wonderful students / 
participants outstanding
and enlightening 
experiences!  

We don't usually offer 
obscure languages, but if
requested...  One never knows!

...outstanding, with equally Outstanding Instructors personally on hand, that is, personally present to edify, enthrall and often fascinate!!)...   

Examples of Classes Offered:    Learning Cribbage, America's Founding Documents, Exercise Classes, Poetry, Art, History, Milwaukee's Outstanding Art Museum and the Exhibits it Offers, Thomas Jefferson's Wisconsin Connection, Writing Family Stories, Knitting, Languages for Beginners, and So Much More...  It's True!!  

And, NSS4S has an excellent web site -- www.nss4s.org -- visit the site today, now, right away...  What are you waiting for, for Pete's Sake??!!  You can register for classes right there, OnLine...  Thank you for your kind attention to this introduction to North Shore School for Seniors!  Are you registered yet??!!  

(Special Note of Dedication:    ...For our Instructors, many of whom are well know in educational and professional Circles, our Outstanding and Devoted Volunteers, and, of course, our equally Outstanding and Committed Student / Participants! We thank you all profusely and most sincerely!!)

Submitted 09-26-2024 -- Joel K

"DIY" and the Single-Minded, Slightly but Not Always Competent Geezer!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:    "DIY" and the Single-Minded, Slightly but Not Always Competent Geezer!

Pictured above is an image
of a menacing bird that
stared at me while I patched
a hole in a soffit...  Musta
been its nest??!!

Periodically -- and I suppose many are so afflicted! -- I tour our "estate" to determine possibly urgent maintenance needs!  (Drat the confounded curse of responsibility...  it's like a "plague of conscience"??!!)  And then what happens??!!...  

...Suddenly, last summer...  I decided both the upper front porch railing and the upper rear deck and railing system demanded attention, that is, scraping and removing old material and applying new primer and a finished coat of paint.  I also heeded the advice of my wife and attempted to repair a gaping hole in a soffit (fascia, too!) above the upper front porch.  "Must'a been those darn birds!" I opined upon acknowledging the great, gaping mess in the upper regions of the structure.  (A gaggle of birds kept staring at me menacingly as I worked!)    

Aging geezer that I am, I nearly fell off the ladder four or five times.  "We should move to a condo that hires people to do that kind of work," my wise and protective wife almost demanded.  

"We'll look into that," I replied.  "I agree it's an excellent thought.  I'm too old to be working on a ladder for several hours on end...  I could get dizzy and plummet to the earth!  Worse...  the concrete!"  As of this writing, we haven't changed lodgings!  But we're looking into it...

Idiotic though it may seem for a barely competent DO-IT-YOURSELF'er, I have long felt I could accomplish many different tasks best left to professionals.  In one instance in the mid-1990's, I attempted to repair an aging Chevrolet.  After my "repairs," and the removal of

I didn't actually fall off
the ladder, this time...
But I teetered and
wobbled a lot!  Whew!!...

several pieces of "extraneous" hardware, some silly "needless" wires too, the air conditioning never worked again, the windscreen wipers bumped into one another and mechanical difficulties appeared one after another until finally the automobile expired.  When I attempted to change the "glow plugs" on a Volkswagen "Rabbit," we eventually had to "shoot the thing and put it out of its misery," as one of our wiser acquaintances observed.  (She was fond of metaphors!...  or is it  anthropomorphism??)

I have had some successes, however!  I replaced a faucet system for my dear friend, Steve, and his family.  Although I had to use several innovative fastening devices to anchor the thing to the sink.  The faucet sat a bit higher than Missus would have liked!  I rebuilt the threshold at our back door.  Didn't do too bad a job, either.  It just wobbles a little...  And, I've done concrete repairs around the periphery of our 118-year-old homestead.  It may not be pretty, but it seems functional.  I think!...  

Illustration above is how
one feels one appears
trying to schlep a 3-ton
refrigerator (beer usage only)!

My brother, by contrast, is a DIY genius -- builder, electrician, engineer, designer, plumber...  He can do, build and fix anything...  Big jerk!!  When he married and left home for good, that is, left the old nuclear family home of our youth, my father began to telephone me every second day or so to fix things.  He must have thought my brother and me interchangeable parts!  What a disappointment for the old fellow.  I have a great friend, Tom G., who is also a DIY expert.  He can do all that stuff, too.  Why is that?  Is it in the genes?  (Ach!)  Can't be!  My father only picked up a hammer to chase vermin out of mother's tomatoes!  

I seriously lacked the manual arts competence of my older brother.  I allowed an ancient, seemingly 3-ton refrigerator to crash through a basement wall, for example.  "Boy genius," my father labeled me, sarcasm dripping acidly from his words...  But that's a story for another time...  (Well...  maybe just a taste -- a friend and I tried to "hoik" it into the back of an open convertible.  We eventually tied the dolly holding the accursed "ice box" to the back of the automobile and hauled it like a trailer for five or six miles...)

Although I almost always did my parents' bidding, and tried to do my best even when the task was utterly ridiculous, even into my own advancing age.  I stuffed steel wool into imaginary holes in the eaves, for example, where my father was certain squirrels were gaining access to his attic.  We used live traps to capture the invading "tree rodents" and then drove them -- at his command -- from Wauwatosa to Mequon for release "into the wilds," as he'd say.  When another squirrel invaded his attic, he'd pull a face, contortedly quizzical, and ask, "How the hell did that damn beast find its way back here from Mequon?"  I'm sure he was joking...  Wasn't he??  Eventually, we engaged a kind of exterminator who discovered the actual point of entry.  The squirrel invasion ceased.

"Hey Pops!  You look a bit thick!
You got squirrels in your attic,
maybe?...  Tee Hee...  Snicker!..."

I suppose it's a kind of conditioning.  Pavlovian stuff!  My mother insisted I could fix anything she asked me to repair, build anything...  I put up a Christmas tree on one occasion and somehow managed to cause a power saw to gnaw its way into a paint-striped, newly replaced base board!  (The thing is, I fashioned a make-shift stand, but failed to consider placing the stand in water!!  I tried sawing the stand to accommodate the size of the water bucket; vibrations sent ornaments sailing, crashing...  Such a fuss; maybe they were heirlooms!)  My mother returned to the scene from shopping.  "Is the tree up?" she asked, walking into the living room.  "Oh," she exclaimed, in shock but outwardly calm.  "Can you fix that?"  Never quite a perfect repair, she placed a large chair nearby to conceal the scar!

For Maintenance,  Don't
Call This Guy!!  

As a probably deleterious result of all that "encouragement," I can't help myself.  I keep trying to fix things I shouldn't go near!  It's a curse, I suppose.  Just this past week, I snaked out a "choking" bathroom sink drain.  I discovered the "head" of the snake peeking out of the sink in an adjacent bathroom.  "How the hell did that happen?" I exclaimed.  (Sigh!)  The clogged sink eventually drained.  Divine intervention, maybe!!??

I can't imagine a major shift in my foolish DIY compulsion.  Call it cheapness, maybe it's quixotic, perhaps just the absurd notion that eventually I'll miraculously acquire a level of expertise from all those previous attempts!?  Ridiculous!...  And then there's the specter of aging limbs and their eventual worsening condition that'll force the end of my DIY fervor!  I'll post my medical and surgical history, charts, X-Rays...  just FYI!!  If you need me, I'll be upstairs plunging something...  or hammering...!  (Keep emergency numbers handy at all times!!)  

Humbly posted 02-16-15 -- Joel K.